Sin stood at the edge of the lobby balcony surveying the damage with infected shuffling around on the floor below them, they had yet to notice them. A count revealed there to be sixty-four infected and almost half that in fatalities littering the floor, blood and gore everywhere. He lowered his head, the emergency shutters were closed and the sanitation protocol level two had been activated, but how would he get out before the facility was cleansed?
Raising the pistol in his hands he fired the bullet burying itself in the infected's shoulder, but it only flinched as it kept running toward him. Bringing his aura up Sin fired another shot before running to meet them letting them swarm him as he fought back slamming their heads against the wall and getting point blank headshots to make sure they were dead. Shore charged in behind him to help fighting their way through and clearing a path for Matoi and the others to follow, but they kept coming.
Matoi yelled over the calls of the infected, "Stairway on the right!"
Shore turned kicking the door open, "Come on get in!"
Matoi went in first followed by Quartz and then Birk who forced his way past Romine with Shore and Sin moving in behind them.
Sin reached for the arm that slowed the door quickly wrapping his tie around it, "That won't hold for long, keep moving!"
The group ran up the stairs with Matoi in the lead reaching the first sub-level, not stopping to see if the infected on that level were up and about. Continuing up the stairs they heard the door below them slam open and the infected had begun chasing them up the stairs. Making it to the ground level Sin ran out the door last and along with Shore pushed over a vending machine to block the door before they kept running only for them all to freeze when they entered the lobby area.
Infected everywhere, stumbling around sitting against the walls or lying down, but they were awake, the closing shutters must have alerted them. Silently Matoi gestured to an escalator that would take them to the second floor where they could survey the area. They moved slowly, one by one to avoid making too much noise or catching their attention. Sin stayed back keeping watch, he saw one of the infected what used to be a faunus woman shuffle back and forth on her legs before lowering herself to the ground and tucking her hand under her head as if she was going to sleep.
The infected, the only semblance of humanity left in them was the way they behaved when idle. They would show signs of exhaustion, finding a spot to rest, it was a heartbreaking sight. The sickness was evident in them though, not just from the change in their appearance and temperament, but the way they behaved, while they all stumbled around aimlessly and some would give in to exhaustion and rest others would twitch in pain and even hunch over to vomit. That's all this virus was, just an advanced sickness and yet the world lived in fear of it, completely helpless until a cure could be found.
Sin moved staying low to the ground until he was behind the cover of the escalator's wall and then moving up to regroup with the others. Thankfully there were no infected on the second level none that could be seen anyway, they had probably wandered into rooms or around the corner or even fell over the edge. Either way it gave them time to stop and think of a plan.
Sin stood at the edge of the lobby balcony surveying the damage with infected shuffling around on the floor below them, they had yet to notice them. A count revealed there to be sixty-four infected and almost half that in fatalities littering the floor, blood and gore everywhere. He lowered his head, the emergency shutters were closed and the sanitation protocol level two had been activated, but how would he get out before the facility was cleansed?
"Time?" he heard Shore whisper.
"Eight minutes" Matoi replied, "There's no way we can get through the shutters and the fire escapes are magnetically sealed during lockdown."
Quartz lowered his head, "So we're going to die here then."
Sin stepped away from the railing, "Like hell we are. We're getting out of here."
Romine looked up to him from the floor, "You've thought of something?"
Sin looked at them, "There's a break room just around the corner right? With a microwave and a toaster. Shore, Matoi how many rounds do you have left?"
The two checked their guns, four each making eight plus the six in Sin's making fourteen. Sin flashed a grin telling them to follow him. Thankfully there were few infected to be encountered each of them easily and silently dispatched by the two huntsman. Taking the toaster and microwave Sin told Shore to check the nearby rooms for an extension cord as many as he could find and to meet them by the fire escape door around the corner.
Taking the appliances to the back fire escape Sin set them down and pried the microwave open first removing the wires from it and setting them to the side. Next he opened the toaster removing the heating coils and the cord attached to them. He took the guns from Matoi and Shore as well as his own unloading the remaining rounds and tying them to the heating coils and hanging it from the door handle using duct tape to make sure it was secured against the door. Taking the wires from the microwave he stripped them and wrapped them around the heating coils.
Matoi's eyes widened when he realized what the huntsman was doing, "A shape charge?"
Sin nodded, "Something I learned from a friend of mine, he loved his explosives."
"Loved?" Quartz repeated, "Past tense? Did he?"
Sin smirked, "No he's fine. Just got married and had a kid. Opted for a safer line of work, classic family man."
Plugging the microwave's cord into the extension he held the other end to Matoi, "Matoi take this and plug it in over there" he pointed at the outlet near the restroom that powered the water cooler.
Taking the cord Matoi walked over to the water cooler pushing it to the side being careful not to tip it over. Kneeling down he unplugged the cooler and plugged in the microwave, but before he could give the all clear an infected stumbled out of the restroom and grabbed hold of him from behind biting into his neck. The guard's screamed alerting the group and Sin swore rushing to Matoi's aid kicking the infected in the side knocking it off Matoi.
Grabbing the wounded guard Sin pulled him away as Shore moved in smashing the infected's head against the wall. Matoi gasped for air, his hand covering the wound on his neck his fingers hooked into claws as he bled. Sin kneeled next to him moving the guard's hand to check the wound, his carotid artery was ripped open.
"I'm sorry" Sin told him knowing there was no way to help him, even if he didn't bleed out chances were he would turn within a couple of hours.
Matoi moved his mouth, gasping for air as he tried to speak, "Go" he finally managed before his chest fell never to rise again.
Howls echoed through the hall, Matoi's screams had alerted the infected drawing them to their location. Sin looked at his scroll, four minutes until the facility was destroyed wiping out the infection with it. Between him and Shore they could hold them of until the door was blasted open, but would that give them time to escape as well? They only need thirty seconds for the microwave to run and activate the shape charge, but the infected would follow them outside, inside these close quarters they could deal with them well enough, but in an open area where they can swarmed they wouldn't last long without weapons.
Sin turned to Romine, "Romine set the microwave for thirty seconds, then find somewhere to hide with Birk and Quartz, Shore and I will hold them off. Once you hear the blast run for it and don't stop."
Sin stood up with Shore jogging to his side, "Just like old times huh?" the tiger faunus asked him, "That old temple about a mile out from Kuroyuri out in Mistral."
Sin nodded to the side, "Just you and me, exhausted from an extended assignment, out of ammo and supplies and surrounded by grimm. Feels like yesterday."
The two huntsman raised their fists the back of their hands meeting as they waited for the infected.
Sin sighed, "On you're go Mark."
The faunus grinned, "Using my first name? Think our chances are that low?"
Sin nodded, "Yep."
Shore scoffed when the first infected reached them snatching it by the neck and lifting it up hurling it at the oncoming horde knocking down several of them. Sin stepped back a heavy left hook snapping the jaw of one before he grabbed it and snapped its head to the side tossing the ragdoll body into the next one he saw. Though they killed a half dozen each the two huntsman were quickly surrounded limiting their movement space leaving them back to back as they defended each other.
"So" Shore said landing an axe handle blow on one, "How's Ivy? You two a thing yet?"
Sin ducked jabbing at an Infected's side leaving it open to a pair of hooks before kicking it away from him, "Not really the time Mark!"
The faunus laughed, "Man if we are going to die you're going to go out single, that's rough. Just be glad you're not a virgin, that'd be the worst part."
"Mark I swear to the gods" Sin yelled leaning back to avoid an infected's swing before reaching out to grab it and snap its neck.
Shore kept laughing, "What about that little girl of yours? Velvet, how's she doing?"
"She's good" Sin answered, "Her team is best of the second years. Her birthday is in three days, was going to take her and her team to dinner. You think I can mail gift cards from the afterlife?"
Shore continued laughing, "I've missed this" he killed another one before they heard the blast.
The microwave's radiation traveled down its stripped wires to the heating coils of the toaster heating the bullets tied to them before they went off at once blasting a hole through the door destroying its magnetic seal.
Down the hall in the women's restroom Romine, Quartz and Birk were hiding, they could hear the calls of the infected, but they couldn't hear either huntsman.
"How long has it been?" Quartz asked, "He said thirty seconds, it should have gone off by now."
Birk muttered, "Maybe those things unplugged it somehow. Like that idiot's plan would have worked anyway."
Romine screamed feeling something grab his ankle and pull him to the floor, the other two jumped when they saw an infected woman under the stall door holding on to Romine. Seeing it Birk turned and fled while Quartz grabbed Romine's hand trying to pull him away.
"Help me" Romine cried, "Help me!"
Quartz tried to pull him, but slipped on the floor the back of his head smacking the tiles and Romine screamed when he felt the infected's teeth bite into his leg and begin ripping his flesh apart. Romine continued to scream as Quartz crawled backwards away from him terror gripping the scientist until he turned around and ran hearing the blast of the shape charge and running for the fire escape. He continued to run until he saw Birk hiding at a corner they could hear the two huntsman fighting around the corner, they were still alive.
"Birk" Quartz gasped, "Romine he's, he's."
Birk shouted, "Who cares about him, I'm more important now shut up and let's get out of here."
One of the infected heard the lab lead shouting, turning away from the pack attacking Shore and Sin it screamed before charging at the two researchers.
Quartz panicked, "Birk behind you!"
Birk stepped forward grabbing Quartz's arm and pushing him toward the sprinting infected watching the middle-age doctor trip and the infected fall on top of him. With the monster distracted Birk ran for the open fire escape door seeing another infected running toward him. Running out the door Birk ran down the first few steps and watched as the infected behind him tumbled over the railing and fell to its death as it landed on its head.
"Hah" Birk panted, "Yeah that's right" he leaned over the railing, "Don't mess with me. I ruin people who mess with me!" he yelled not hearing a second infected running behind him.
The infected grabbed his shoulders as it ran into him, its momentum pushing both of them over the railing, both of them splattering on the concrete below.
"Jump!" Sin yelled as he and Shore ran out of the door stepping onto the escape railing and leaping off.
Their auras held as they hit, their legs tucked when they rolled, Sin the first to his feet grabbing Shore's arm and pulling the faunus to his feet as they ran, seeing Birk's body on the ground. They made it to the fence climbing onto a car and scaling the razor wire lined fence and they kept running until they heard the explosion behind them. Both huntsman ducking for cover when they heard it, the debris raining down on them. When it stopped they stood up seeing the remains of the facility in flames the two sharing another fist bump as they panted trying to catch their breaths.
"We made it" Shore said, "Survived another one."
Sin leaned against the wall, "But they didn't. Romine, Matoi, Quartz, Birk. Well I couldn't care less about Birk, but the others...that's two facilities in two days. This isn't just sabotage Mark. Someone out there is trying to release this virus and they want to get rid of anyone who can stop it."
The faunus couldn't argue, "We need to let the headmasters and councils know as well as the leads for all the labs. But hey, I'll handle all that alright, you take some time to spend with your girls alright? Both of them."
Sin leaned against his knees too busy catching his breath to say anything. There was going to be a lot of work to go around after this, the other facilities around Remnant would be scrambling to recover from this loss. The Vrede lab was the second largest in the world, and it was in flames, this could set them all back by years.
On the roof of an adjacent building two people leaned against the edge assessing the destroyed facility. The man stood a good six feet tall wearing a white suit jacket with red trims, a gray scarf around his neck and black pants, boots and gloves. A bowler hat covered most of his orange hair that flowed down curling into bangs on one side to cover his right eye.
"Well Neo?" he asked, "Do you think it was them?"
The woman next to him nodded her pale skin lightly gleaming from the setting sunlight. She stood short of five feet with half brown, half pink hair, with matching eye color. She was wearing a white jacket with pink lining on the inside and brown pants along with knee high white high hells. She smiled holding up her scroll with the picture of an amber eyed, black hair woman walking out of the facility nearly two hours before it was destroyed.
The man leaned against his cane with a grin, "Well then" he said bringing a cigar to his lips and lighting it, "We're on the right track then."
He looked down at the two who had managed to escape the lab, "Those two may know something, we'll have to find a way to talk to them."